95.9 fm CKUW Policies & Procedures

Transcription

1 95.9 fm CKUW Policies & Procedures Resource Workshop Introduction to SoundForge Tutorial

2 Room 4CM Portage Ave. Winnipeg MB, R3B 2E9 Vox: (204) Fax: (204) E: By: Kent Davies Sources: Soundforge90_manual, library.rice.edu/sound-forge-guide and AMARC multimedia training kit All Rights Reserved. May 2012.

3 Introduction Sony Sound Forge is a sound editing software program that allows you to create and edit sound files. You can use Sound Forge to record, edit, mix and restore audio. It s a versatile program compatible with most audio file formats (as well as many video formats), capable of being used for multichannel recording and gives users several tools to make precise restorative changes and alterations to tracks at various levels of scrutiny. Interface When you first open Sound Forge, your workspace will be empty except for two toolbars at the top of the window. The Editing Toolbar contains all the basic tools you ll need to edit an audio file including: Cut, Copy, Paste, Mix and Trim. The Transport Toolbar controls the creation and playback of the audio including the Pause, Play, Stop, Skip, Skip back and Record functions. There are also buttons to undo and redo your changes to your project as well as a variety of zoom options to better edit your project. Opening a new File To create a new sound file click the New button on the toolbar, or pull down the File menu and choose New.

4 Here you can choose your settings of the new file including the Sample Rate (Preferably 48,000 or 96,000), Bit-Depth (Preferably 24 bit) and setting the Channels (Preferably Mono for interviews). The Sample Rate is the number of samples of a sound that are taken per second to represent sound digitally. The more samples taken per second, the better the reproduction of the sound. The Bit Depth describes the range of numbers used to represent each amplitude measurement of a sampled sound wave. The more bits that are available, the more accurate the resulting output from the data being processed. To open a new file quickly just click on the white page icon on the main toolbar. The file will open in the previously defaulted settings. To open an already existing sound file, either click open on the toolbar, pull down the File menu and choose Open or even drag audio files into the program.

5 Once you ve opened a waveform file you will notice a toolbar in the bottom lefthand corner. The Playbar is for playback and looping of the specific file. The time and level rulers located across and left of the sound file allow you gauge the location and amplitude of the sound file. There is also a zoom control which allows you to change the view both the horizontal and vertical axis of the sound file and a time elapsed and remain counter located in bottom right corner. Playing a file After you open a file, you can play it by clicking the Play All button ( Transport bar or by hitting the spacebar. ) on the Playing a file from a specified point Click to position the cursor in the data window. A flashing cursor (spanning the height of the display) displays. Click the Play button ( spacebar. The file plays from the cursor position. ) on the Transport bar or hitting the Playing a file in loop playback mode

6 You can play audio in a continuous loop by selecting Loop Playback in options the or by pressing Q on the keyboard. Playing a selection You can play specific portions of audio data by creating selections in the waveform display. Drag the mouse within the data window. Notice that the waveform is selected as the mouse is dragged. Click the Play button ( Now only the selection plays. ) or click the spacebar. Saving a file You can save a file in a variety of formats, including popular audio formats such as WAV, MP3 and AIFF, and streaming media formats such as Windows Media Audio (WMA) and RealMedia (RM). First choose File Open. Open one of the files in the Sound Forge directory. Choose File Save. From the Save as type drop-down list, choose a file format. In the File name box, enter a name for the file. Click Save. Some formats such as WAV offer Meta Data windows before saving to record vital information (name of interviewer, name of interviewee, time and date of interview, ect.) This should be utilized Basic editing Copying

7 You can copy audio data from a data window to the clipboard without changing the original file. Once audio data is on the clipboard, you can paste it into existing files or use it to create new files. Open the a file. Select a section of the audio. Choose Edit - Copy or Right Click - Copy or CTRL C. The selected data is copied to the clipboard. Pasting data Once audio data is on the clipboard, you can paste or mix it into an existing data window or use it to create a new data window. Move the cursor to where you want the audio. Choose Edit - Paste or Right Click - Paste or CTRL V. Sound Forge inserts the clipboard data into the file. You can also paste into a new data window by going to the Edit menu, choosing Paste Special, and choose Paste to New from the submenu or by simply opening a new file and pasting in it. Cutting Cutting allows you to remove a section of audio data from a data window and store it on the clipboard until you paste or mix it into another file. Remember Cutting data modifies the original file. Select a section of audio then chose Edit Cut or Right Click Cut or CTRL X. Sound Forge removes the selected data from the file and places it on the clipboard. Deleting Deleting a selection permanently removes it without replacing the data currently residing on the clipboard. To delete data, choose Delete (Clear) from the Edit menu. Trimming / Cropping Trimming allows you to retain a selection while deleting all the surrounding data. Select a selection of audio choose Edit - Trim/Crop. Mixing Mixing is a powerful editing function that allows two sounds to be combined into a single waveform. Open two files, one with voice (clipboard) and one with music (destination). Select a section of audio from the voice file then choose Edit - Copy.

8 Move the cursor to the music file (destination file) and click on where you want the voice to start. Then choose Edit Mix. The Mix now dialog appears. Now you can preview and adjust the Source and Destination volume faders that are set to 0 db to find the perfect mix. When you ve found the mix you want click OK. The two files will mix. Using Undo You can undo any edit operation by choosing Undo from the Edit menu. You can redo any undone edit operation by choosing Redo from the Edit menu. Recording Audio First select where you want to record with the cursor position on an open file. If you would like to record into a different data window open a new file. You can record into an existing window or create a new window at the time of recording. Choose Special - Transport - Record. The Record window appears. You can also open the Record dialog by clicking the Record button ( transport bar or pressing Control-R. ) on the

9 An active data window will appear. It s importnat to gauge the record meters which show the input level. For recording purposes, the input level should remain primarily in the yellow, only occasionally entering the red (Between -6 db and 24 db). While it s particularly important to record input signals as loud as possible to maximize dynamic range the input signal must never exceed the 0 db range which will result in waveform peaks which are clipped, resulting in audible digital distortion. If clipping occurs, decrease the level of the input signal until the record level is maximized without clipping. To record Click the Record button ( begin. ) in the Record dialog. The Recording will

10 Click the Stop button ( Record dialog. ) to stop recording. Click the Close button to close the Normalizing The Normalizing function allows you to expand a sound files highest peaks of amplitude to their greatest allowable levels, thus raising the softer sounds by the same proportion. This will boost the audio file volume without affecting the overall audio quality with clipping or distortion. To Normalize go to Process Normalize. Select the pre-set Normalization levels from the drop-down menu or manually adjust the levels with the fader on the left. Using Markers Markers and regions allow you to tag and organize audio data and make audio editing more efficient. A marker is a tag placed in an audio file that is used as a reference point. You can insert markers by placing the cursor in the waveform where you want the marker. Now Right Click and choose Insert Marker/ Region from the shortcut menu. The Insert Marker / Region dialog appears. Enter a name for the marker in the Name box and click OK. The new name appears in the waveform. You can also hit M on the keyboard to insert a marker.

11 You can move a marker's position by dragging it to a new location by dragging the marker to a new position on the data window ruler. Release the mouse button. The marker is dropped at its new location. Noise Reduction Noise Reduction helps remove unwanted background noise, hiss or hum that often stays within the same frequencies of a recording.

12 First highlight a portion of a file that contains only noise or silence, no audio or voice. Note that the area does not have to be a large selection, a second would be sufficient. After selecting the noise, go to Tools Noise Reduction. When the Noise Reduction window opens, click on the Noiseprint tab. Check the Capture Noiseprint box, then click on Preview to display and hear the captured noise print. It analyzes your noise sample to create a noiseprint selection. Next, select the noise reduction Mode and amount. Mode 0 provides the most noise reduction, but trying to remove a significant amount of noise will likely produce artifacts. Higher-numbered modes trade off less noise reduction for less potential for artifacts. Start with Mode 2, then adjust the "Reduce Noise By" slider for the desired amount of noise reduction; start off with 6-12dB. Click on the window showing the waveform to give it focus, then go Edit - Select All to select the entire file for noise reduction. Now the process will remove signals matching your selected noiseprint from the file. As you play the file, you'll hear the noise reduction in action (if the Real-Time box is checked). If you're happy with the degree of noise reduction, click on OK in the noise reduction window. If not, change the mode and noise reduction amount until you get the best results, then click on OK. The Noise Reduction tool has many additional parameters for fine-tuning the process. For example, there's a high-shelf filter. This is useful for interviews, because the human voice has very little energy in that range but background hiss does, so elminating those frequencies lessens hiss without affecting the voice.